Glass Half Empty

Hands up who thinks I look an idiot (comments restricted to the head gear please). Raise your hands if you think I’m spying on you. And finally, who wants a go on my new Google Glass?

I think we’ve already established my fondness for cars, design and technology. This new toy sits firmly in the third category and stretches my propensity for rabid gadget adoption to new limits. I love the thought of taking information away from a screen and delivering it as close to the brain as possible, however I’m not a fan of looking daft.

It’s this healthy skepticism that helped me through the door at Google’s New York office last week when I collected my shiny new Glass headset. Or should I say attempted to collect, more on that later.

If you don’t already know what Google Glass is (and I keep forgetting there are some of you who don’t) this is the Palo Alto tech giant’s first foray into wearable technology.

Essentially, a metal bar runs around the user’s brow line from ear to ear, balancing on their nose. An additional arm reaches round the right side where a prism projects digital content directly onto the retina of the eye so both foreground and distant images remain in focus and the multitasking begins. This grey, black, white, blue or red arm also contains the speaker where the audio is transmitted directly into the wearer’s skull through bone-conduction. It’s not as freaky as it sounds and effectively leaves you with both ears to function normally without the ambient audio barrier headphones create.

That’s the tech, so what’s the experience? The screen image is almost unnaturally sharp and it comes as a shock when both the digital information and the world around you are in focus. The headset is very light and to someone who doesn’t usually wear glasses such as myself, it feels pretty unobtrusive.

When the headset is asleep, the screen remains completely clear and only when the touch-sensitive panel on the screen arm is tapped does the content spring into life. Next steps require the wearer to utter the magic words “OK Glass” to activate voice control or swipe back, down or forwards with one or two-fingered gestures on the screen arm. Still with me?

You can also nod your head up and down to deactivate the headset or go directly to the camera mode by pressing a physical button near the screen.

All this takes some getting use to but becomes increasingly addictive as you discover more features such as the ability to ask Glass for a local restaurant, then receive screen navigation direct to the door. Or how about a live Google hangout with your screen view transmitted to your invited circles? Maybe flight information beamed directly to your screen with Glass having drawn the information from your airline’s email confirmation?

That last point is actually impressive and unnerving in equal measures. The level of ‘data sharing’ hits home when you realise HAL has started reading your private correspondence.

At this juncture I’d like to explain why I’m not wearing a conventional pair of Google Glass in the photo above. I’m English.

It seems that’s the only reason. I was selected for the #ifihadglass programme via a twitter conversation instigated by Google, asking how we’d use Glass in interesting and innovative ways. Only a few of us were fortunate enough to receive the single acknowledging Tweet that said we’d been selected to participate in this groundbreaking research into the future of wearable technology (and it would cost us $1,500 each – a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things).

A wall of silence followed, during which time the first ‘I/O 2012’ conference attendees received their headsets (more commonly known as Glass Explorers, or the unofficial title, Glassholes). The press got to review this kit by spending time with these early adopters, who subsequently became tech/geek superheroes.

The silence persisted and my anxiety grew so I began to harass everyone I knew at Google (or were in any way connected to the organisation) to see if I could learn of the schedule for issuing Glass. I apologise now to all those nudged but the radio silence lead to doubts that I had actually been selected.

I needn’t have worried as the message finally appeared on my iPhone to tell me that @projectglass had followed me and a DM arrived “Your Glass is now ready! Please purchase within 14 days.” and I should head to a designated website to book my dedicated one-to-one introduction to Glass. This was it, I could organise my US trip to collect my headset!

With my US address supplied (Brandwidth’s New York office) and $1,500 paid in full (via my colleague’s US-registered credit card – thanks Dacia!) I was finally in the system with my designated time and destination set. Google New York here I come!

On the basis of this momentous occasion, I arranged a coast-to-coast US tour, taking in meetings in San Francisco, Cupertino, Mountain View, LA, Washington and New York – all in one fast-paced week, culminating in my appointment at the funky Google New York office.

Upon arrival I was escorted upstairs by a Glass-wearing brand ambassador, my first human contact throughout the whole process. I presented my passport as proof of ID at the reception desk and was issued with my Glass pass and whisked into the inner sanctum.

The one-to-one session began with the opportunity to try all Glass colour (or color) options, with and without the sunglass attachment. This was a pleasant surprise as I had assumed my selection would be set in stone the moment I had completed my online purchase. Both blue and red suggested I was trying too hard and looked more than a little like Timmy Mallet or Jonathan King – not a good look. The black looked a little heavy when not accompanied by the sunglasses. The white looks great but too clinical. I stuck with the neutral grey I had chosen on my original order.

I was logged into a Google Chromebook (the first time I had seen one in the wild), my headset registered and synced with G+ and GMail accounts and I was in the system! A two hour induction and training session followed during which I explained I intended to make a charity wing-walk wearing my new Glass, amongst other death-defying feats to entertain, reward and probably annoy my digital audience in equal measures.

Then my Glass world came crashing down as another cheerful Google employee asked if I was a resident of the United States? “No” I replied “but I do spend a lot of my time here, test and review emerging technology, build content for these devices and make recommendations to global clients. And was chosen by Google to be here”.

“Oh, but you’re English”

“Yep”

“I’m sorry but we can’t let you leave as this is only open to US residents”

“But that doesn’t make any sense for a beta programme looking to obtain as much feedback as possible from a varied global audience”

“I’m sorry but we can’t let you leave as this is only open to US residents”

“Can I not try to run out with them? I’ve paid for them and still own them?”

“I’m sorry but we can’t let you leave as this is only open to US residents”

I left, without shouting at the well-intentioned Google staff and walked 66 blocks in 30º heat to get the frustrating situation out of my system.

Had I made a run for it and actually made it as far as the sidewalk, my first public outing wearing my Glass headset would probably have been akin to wearing only an oversized pair of Dame Edna specs and my pants (that’s underwear for the Americans, not trousers). In New York, these anxiety levels may well have proven unfounded as the US crowds are more accepting of the technology – especially in cosmopolitan New York. Might have been quite different on the streets of London.

I’m still intrigued to see how Glass evolves and how the human element is represented. There certainly wasn’t much human interaction in the run up to my Google visit!

Although much of the focus surrounding Glass is on generating images and video footage that gives a first-person perspective, I’m concerned we’re beginning to see a removal of character rather than adding personality. Transmitting or recording ‘my viewpoint’ never actually features the wearer so we’re actually one step removed rather than making a connection. Either way, this still generates interesting content but we shouldn’t lose sight of the individual.

Am I disappointed? You bet your ass I am, even if the number of individuals lucky enough to be accepted onto the beta programme (as I was) are very small, I’m willing to bet I’m in a category of 1 when it comes to those that have owned Glass only to be parted from them for being a little too English.